Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi has been granted anonymity by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France, officials said. His case will now proceed away from public scrutiny.

The court will treat the matter as confidential, with proceedings closed to public view. “In cases where an applicant has been granted anonymity and the case file is confidential, the court cannot provide any information about that case,” the ECHR press office told PTI.

In around a fortnight, the ECHR is likely to conduct a hearing on Nirav Modi's plea. The court will also hear the Central Bureau of Investigation, following which it might give a verdict, sources said. If Modi's plea is rejected, it will eliminate the final legal hurdle for his extradition to India from the UK, where he is lodged in a London prison.

 

UK extradition case and legal background

Modi has exhausted multiple legal avenues in the United Kingdom. In March, the UK’s High Court of Justice rejected his petition to reopen his extradition challenge. The bench, comprising Lord Justice Stuart-Smith and Justice Jay, relied on what it described as the “quality of assurances” provided by the Indian government, calling them “comprehensive” enough to address the risk of torture concerns raised in the case.

The court also noted that diplomatic undertakings submitted between September 2025 and February 2026 were “a sheaf of assurances that are comprehensive, detailed and reliable.”

Earlier, Modi’s attempt to reopen the appeal was linked to a February 2025 judgment in the extradition case of defence consultant Sanjay Bhandari, where the use of torture by Indian agencies to extract confessions was described as “commonplace and endemic.”

Fraud allegations and extradition status

Declared a fugitive in India, Modi is accused of orchestrating a ₹13,000 crore fraud at Punjab National Bank in alleged collusion with his uncle Mehul Choksi, who is lodged in a Belgian prison.

According to the CBI, Modi alone is alleged to have siphoned off ₹6,498.20 crore from the total amount under investigation.

If his plea before the ECHR is rejected, it would remove the final legal hurdle to his extradition to India from the United Kingdom.